Apple nabs Xbox marketing manager for App Store
Robin Burrowes, who used to head up Microsoft UK's product marketing, is now handling App Store marketing for Apple.
Apple might be a hardware company, but the iPhone maker seems to be increasingly focused on gaming.
Robin Burrowes, former marketing manager at Xbox UK and head of product marketing at Microsoft UK, has moved to Apple's European office to handle App Store Marketing, several reports out of the country and Burrowes' own LinkedIn profile claim.
As U.K. gaming publication MCV points out, Apple has been aggressively attracting gaming public relations professionals over the last several months. The company has brought on former Nintendo UK PR boss Robert Saunders, as well as Nick Grange, who worked in the PR departments at Electronic Arts, Activision, and Xbox.
According to research firm Flurry Analytics, Apple's iOS-based devices are becoming increasingly popular in the gaming space. In 2009, for example, iOS- and Android-based games accounted for just 19 percent of all gaming software revenue. That figure grew to 34 percent in 2010 and an estimated 58 percent last year.
Meanwhile, so-called "traditional" gaming companies, like Nintendo and Sony, have watched their market share slide over the last few years. In 2009, Nintendo's portable game software revenue stood at 70 percent in the U.S., but dropped to 36 percent last year. Sony's PSP owned 11 percent of the space in 2009, but that figure declined to 6 percent in 2011.
"Portable console gaming no longer has a practical place in the current landscape of casual flick, drag, and swipe games," CNET's Jeff Bakalar wrote in a discussion on portable systems last year. "There is no room for the 3DSes and Vitas of the world when all-in-one functionality is now more important than high-tech, gaming-focused mobile systems."
Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment on its recent hires.